Happy Tuesday folks, it is election day in the US and I always wake up with a feeling of joy and optomisum voting day! That is what’s great about fall, you have so many things going on, Thanksgiving is a couple of weeks away and before you know it, Christmas! To get ready for Christmas card making I decided to make a template set of the most common sized envelopes crafters need. You gat a 4.25″x8.25″ for photo cards, 5.25″x7.25″ for 5″x7″ cards and 4.5″x5.75″ for standard A4 cards and they all have plain and fancy liners to match! The new Envelopes and Liners SVG set is on sale 40% off alone with everything else at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff too! What a great time to plan ahead for Christmas and craft fairs:

Die Cutting Tips:

The intricate shapes on the envelope liners actually cut very quick and cleanly (a must for me!) but here are a few tips whenever you cut detailed designs:

Pick your paper: For envelopes you want a thinner paper and sometimes thinner scrapbook paper snags in your die-cut machine. I love the paper stacks from Die Cuts With a View (the regular 180 sheet stacks), they always cut well. In the examples I used last years Christmas stack.

Use a sticky and smooth mat. I have a Cricut Expression but my old mats were nasty and the blades did not seem to be lasting the way they used to so I switched to using Sizzix Eclips mats and blades and they work so much better and they were about half the price!

Sometimes even a new blade with snag your paper, take the blade out of the machine and blow any lint off the blade and try again.

Use the correct pressure, for this regular weight scrapbook paper I used medium pressure, for cardstock I’d use high, don’t overdo it or you will be cutting your mat and your paper and shortening the life of your blade!

I hope these tips helped you! Be sure to check out all of the great sets at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff and save 40% today through Thursday!

This was quite easy to make, I printed the poppy image on white cardstock and colored it with my Prismacolor pencils and blended it with goo-gone. It is quicker that coloring with copics for me and I love the results! The boxes, envelope and flower cut in seconds, truly a last minute gift!

I used a border punch to edge my card and mat, a nice detail that doesn't cont a cent!

I really wanted a ribbon rose on my card but did not have the right colors so I took a piece of 1/4″ satin ribbon and made my own. Since I was in a hurry I secured it with hot glue but stitching is probably a better option if making a batch ahead of time:) The rubber stamped sentiment is from About Art Accents.

Howdy folks! It is a beautiful Saturday in the northeast, I’m sure many a lady is heading out to all day crops and scrapbook retreats in honor of national scrapbooking day (have fun girls and scrap a page for me!) and in honor of that everything in the Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff shop at MyGrafico is 30% off! Including the new Box Bonanza templates I used in this project:

This was fun to make, you won’t belive how easy the box and cookies were to make so I made a video:

This was my first time making a stair step card, it was a challenge at Oriental Stamp Art (and fortune cookies was a theme so look at me, 2 challenges done!) here is a better look at the card and matching envelope (or course!)

The stair step card neatly squashes down to go in an envelope, I think it is cute how the Geisha is peeking out!

Here is a look at my newest template set: Box Bonanza. You get 6 printable 300dpi jpg templates that you can resize and print directly on your cardstock or pattern paper (I kept any directions on the margins) cut and assemble and 6 SVG files to cut with your Cricut and SCAL software. The are adjustable and resizable too simply by dragging the to the height and with you want, you can make hundreds of different boxes with this one set!

I have lots of crafty goodness for you today but first a shameless plug:

There is nothing greener than digital supplies right, just print what you need on demand, save the trees!

OK, a few weeks ago I showed you how to emboss a frame by using a cardboard mat, a cuttlebug folder and a Big Shot machine. I had requests for a video so here ist is, also there is a mini Sure Cuts a Lot {SCAL} lesson too as we will make out embossing template with the Cricut:

Here are the finished projects. I used the poppy stamp from the Fancy Flowers set as my focal image and colored it with Copics. I got a bit carried away with the white ink in the background, it was a really juicy ink pad 🙂

On this one I placed the oval cutout on the card and sprayed ink on the frame area then rubbed it with an inkpad to bring out the embossed design. I stamped the butterfly (About Art Accents) in the center and heat embossed and colored with watercolor markers, added some ribbon and crocheted flowers and the Asian clip art (Garden Meditation set from Lettering Delights on sale for $1!) then I sewed it to my card base.

Man, I love Thursdays! I get to see all of the awesome projects the Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff Design Team has created for the week and I get to do my favorite thing: Share some freebies! (And it really makes my day when someone Leaves a comment or buys something from my digital stamp store too!) I have been playing with my brand new stamp set called “Creepy Crows“, take a look:

When DT member Tracey asked me to make a crow stamp for an ATC swap she was in I said “sure, I’ll make one to go in a Halloween I was working on…” one stamp turned into seven and I gave it a kit of its own, its called Creepy Crow and it was done with a dip pen and bottle of ink so it has a bit of an old gothic feel to it. This is my favorite stamp in the set, it is a journaling spot and it is big, it is available as a png and jpg as are all of the stamps in the set for ultimate versatility!

My mom was complaining the other day that she can never find the card she wants with the right sentiment and she asked if I could come up with a set of versatile cards with different sayings that could be added. Being the obliging daughter I am I said “sure!” Well I’m sure this isn’t what she had in mind but I was itching to use the new dollar stamps my Imaginessance I got at Judy’s the other day so I came up with this…I’ll work on something a little more sophisticated for mom LOL!

I used my homemade dew drops for inexpensive embellishing! I colored the frog with Watercolor Crayons and a blender pen but you can get the same effect with chalk.

There are 8 blank cards in the set with envelopes made from pattern paper. It’s a great way to use up the extras that come in pads. I but most of my paper this way because it is only pennies a sheet that way, the paper I used here is by My Minds Eye, Everyday Tango Collection.

You can download the envelope templates here:

Expression users (with Design Studio and the George cartridge) click here for a file that cut 2 envelops on a 12″ paper.

Cricut users with the original 6×12 machine, design studio and george click here for a single envelope that will cut on a 6″x12″ paper.

For a SVG file compatible with SCAL and re-sizable to any size you want click here.

I covered some plain pencils with pattern paper to match. You could even stick fake flowers or feathers to the top to make it extra fancy! The box I am using was rescued from the trash pile, it contained a paint your own piggy bank by the Melissa & Doug toy company. Such a cute sturdy box, and pink too, how could I toss it. I added some crackle medium and acrylic paint and die cuts and viola! A stationary box!

And I made a little notebook to match by cutting a large tag out of two scraps of mat-board and cut pages out of a sheet of cardstock. I joined them with a screw-post then decorated it.

I think this design has a lot of possibilities. You could save yourself some work and increase the recipient’s fun buy giving blank cards, the stamp, ink and, ribbon and colored pencils and let her design them.